With the libraries and public schools closed and over 180,000 K-12 students sent home to learn remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Gwinnett County Public Library (GCPL) knew that we had to find a resource to assist students who could no longer ask their teachers or local librarians for homework help. We immediately reached out to the schools to partner on cost-sharing.

The library had been wanting to provide Tutor.com to the students of Gwinnett County for many years, but the price was more than we could carry on our own. We had tried to partner on costs but did not have success until the COVID-19 pandemic arrived. The key to the project's success was the 50-50 cost-sharing partnership with the schools. Through quick action by the library and school, we were able to have Tutor.com up and running within two weeks of the students being sent home.

In the last month and a half of the spring semester, over 2,300 students engaged in one-on-one tutoring sessions. Student and parent response was so overwhelmingly positive that we knew we wanted to be able to offer unlimited sessions and not have to worry about buying blocks of sessions. Because of the success of the spring partnership, we were able to get the school system to agree to a year-round unlimited tutoring contract so that Gwinnett’s students would have full access to all of Tutor.com’s resources.